Why Legal Cannabis Is 2015’s Best Startup Opportunity

Every entrepreneur dreams of discovering an untapped market where they could start with a low investment and build a huge business. If that’s you, consider the developing legal marijuana industry.

This sector is growing faster than ganja under grow lights.

The best part is, it’s early days for this — cough — budding sector.

Marijuana is now legal for medical use in just 23 of the 50 states, and will soon be legal for recreational use in four — Alaska’s law goes into effect later this month, Oregon’s in July, and in Washington and Colorado, it’s already legal. Alaska’s addition to the legal-pot state roster has some wags dubbing the legal-pot opportunity the “Green Rush.”

Now that full legalization is spreading from state after state, many sector observers believe it’s just a matter of time before more states get on the bandwagon, and before marijuana becomes federally legal. The spread of legalization will open up huge new markets — and startups that get going now will be ready and waiting to take advantage of the increased demand.

The U.S. economy doesn’t spawn an entirely new industry very often, and legal pot may well be the best ground-floor opportunity we’ve seen since the early days of the Internet. While there are some established companies in this niche already — especially in Canada, where medical pot has long been legal — new figures from the Marijuana Business Factbook 2014 map reveal how young most cannabis businesses are, and how quickly they’re becoming profitable.